‘Bike culture’ enjoys limited receptivity among Canadians

[FSTO]

I have never seen such vitriol over any bike lane building project as that emerging from this one. This guy is quite reasonable, but some sound like they've just entered the abortion debate:

Comment: Why the Richardson Street bike plan needs rethinking​

A commentary by a retired transportation planner and a long-time transit, cycling and road-safety advocate who has lived on McNeill Avenue for 42 years.

Comment: Why the Richardson Street bike plan needs rethinking

A commentary by a retired transportation planner and a long-time transit, cycling and road-safety advocate who has lived on McNeill Avenue for 42 years.

www.timescolonist.com

I like the idea of the other municipalities putting up signs warning folks that they are entering the city of Victoria.


"You are now entering the city of Victoria. Here be dragons and orcs. Enter at your peril"

 

[FSTO]

When we start converting residental streets into bike lanes though its a problem as your sacrificing road parking for cyclists when cyclists can still use the road anyways. Personally I dread the idea they might do it to my street as it would create some serious issues for practically using our homes as the nearest street to park/area to park would be many houses away and the drive way can only fit so many on it (in my case 3 cars max).

I'll likely start a war here, but do you have a garage? Do you have 3 vehicles that need to park outside?

 

[Eaglelord17]

Residential streets should have minimal parking, why should cities subsidize your car storage needs?

Why should cities convert perfectly fine residential streets which a very small number of cyclists use into bike laned streets when it will have a detrimental impact on the people who live on the street? Cyclists can already use the street if they wish, all your doing is harming those who actually live there. This is not a main road, its a residential area, not much traffic at the best of times.

How is the city subsidizing anything? I pay my taxes and when I bought my property road way parking was/is available. If the city decides to take away that capability are they then going to pay me back for the losses that maybe incurred due to said decision?

I'll likely start a war here, but do you have a garage? Do you have 3 vehicles that need to park outside?

I generally do not, but for events such as thanksgiving its nice to invite family over and have the ability for them to park. Or if I am doing renos etc. its useful to be able to park the car on the road so a truck or moving van can get in. Or if the driveway gets resurfaced/repaired being able to park nearby well its being done is handy. The point being is generally I park on the road about once every week or two for varying reasons. Why lose a capability well gaining nothing?

 

[kev994]

Why should cities convert perfectly fine residential streets which a very small number of cyclists use into bike laned streets when it will have a detrimental impact on the people who live on the street?

There aren’t enough people using it to cycle. They’re trying to make cycling more attractive. It’s far less expensive than bowing to car culture.

 

[kev994]

One issue we have locally is we will have a bike lane and the cyclists will bike 2 or more abreast so they take up the single car lane too. They will also bike the wrong way down roads, wrong way on cycle lanes (that makes things real dangerous with them darting out into traffic to go around each other), ignore stops, and all without consequences.

They’re doing that because otherwise drivers will try to squeeze by when there isn’t really enough room. If they take the lane then the car has to wait until there’s no oncoming traffic.

 

[Good2Golf]

Narrower roads reduce speeds margins and are a contributing factor to making people mistakenly think they are now much safer...

Costs of road maintenance (including parking spaces) are paid by all taxpayers. I'd rather pay a lower mill rate and let those who need parking pay for it themselves.

I’d rather that city slickers pay a higher road tax component for their overly-asphalted, plentifully road connected hipster-villes, than us rural folk sharing a rarely re-paved secondary single-lane road…

 

[mariomike]

Ours rate payer association votes on side-walks. So, I do not think there would be much enthusiasm for bike lanes.

They can cycle through the park to the waterfront trail.

 

[dapaterson]

I

I’d rather that city slickers pay a higher road tax component for their overly-asphalted, plentifully road connected hipster-villes, than us rural folk sharing a rarely re-paved secondary single-lane road…

I'd be happy to see suburbs taxed to pay their own way, so central, population dense areas can pay less

 

[kev994]

I

I'd be happy to see suburbs taxed to pay their own way, so central, population dense areas can pay less

This is a big problem in Winnipeg, lots of communities popping up outside the perimeter to avoid city taxes but they’re the heaviest users of city roads as many commute into downtown.

 

[Good2Golf]

I

I'd be happy to see suburbs taxed to pay their own way, so central, population dense areas can pay less

Meh…urban/suburban…city-slickers the lot of them.

 

[RangerRay]

If the whole point of "bike culture" is to get more people to use bikes instead of cars for transportation, the bike nazis are going about it the wrong way.

The bike nazis advocate for wide lanes of roadway where they can wear lycra and race to work at 30 km/h. This kind of cycling appeals to only the most hardcore of cyclists, a small segment of the population.

If the bike nazis want to get more people out of cars, they need to emulate the bike culture of Denmark and the Netherlands. There, people ride slow and heavy upright bikes that get a fair bit of speed with longer pedal rotations. This allows people of all ages and fitness levels to commute to work in their office clothes and not get sweaty. As well, while North American bike nazis want chunks of roadway taken from cars for bike lanes, in Denmark/Netherlands, the bike lanes are extensions of the sidewalk, keeping cyclists and drivers separate and safe.

This won't work to well in hilly places like BC though.

 

[lenaitch]

I

I'd be happy to see suburbs taxed to pay their own way, so central, population dense areas can pay less

Strange you should say that. I'm in a rural subdivision. I realize it's hard to directly compare apples to apples, but according to the City of Toronto's property tax calculator, for equal assessed value, if my house was in Toronto my taxes would be about $600 less. I'm on well and septic, have a volunteer fire department and my municipality doesn't have a transit service.

 

[stoker dave]

I consider myself a dedicated cyclist. I live in an area where I can get where I need to most of the time in 15 minutes on a bicycle. I have cycled toured extensively in Canada, the US and Europe (Sweden, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland, etc.).

I like riding my bike. I like the exercise. I like that it costs me almost nothing to travel around. I like that I do my part to reduce my impact on the environment.

I find RangerRay's use of the term "bike nazi" highly inappropriate and offensive. That is simply uncalled for and wrong.

 

[Good2Golf]

Strange you should say that. I'm in a rural subdivision. I realize it's hard to directly compare apples to apples, but according to the City of Toronto's property tax calculator, for equal assessed value, if my house was in Toronto my taxes would be about $600 less. I'm on well and septic, have a volunteer fire department and my municipality doesn't have a transit service.

Same, but on the outer edges of the City’s boundary…recently it even tried to charge rural folks a not insignificant ‘sewer equivalency charge’ because a not insignificant number of city-slickers complained that it ‘wasn’t fair’ that folks on septic/well didn’t pay they’re share of city sewage and water treatment costs. Eventually the City enacted a ‘drainage/culvert maintenance fee’…I anticipate the Grade-Alls to be out in force keeping our dry culverts….dry.

Specious bike route implementation and a crappy LRT that pukes axels at a regular rate is as good as it gets in my town…

 

[RangerRay]

I consider myself a dedicated cyclist. I live in an area where I can get where I need to most of the time in 15 minutes on a bicycle. I have cycled toured extensively in Canada, the US and Europe (Sweden, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland, etc.).

I like riding my bike. I like the exercise. I like that it costs me almost nothing to travel around. I like that I do my part to reduce my impact on the environment.

I find RangerRay's use of the term "bike nazi" highly inappropriate and offensive. That is simply uncalled for and wrong.

Fair enough. I apologize for using that term. With that term, I meant to describe the tiny but loud group of activists, particularly in the Vancouver area, advocating for the elimination of motorized transport who have no concept of the “slow bike” culture in Europe. It was not meant as a slag on the vast majority of cycle touring enthusiasts. I am really sorry I made it sound like I lumped everyone together.

 

[lenaitch]

Same, but on the outer edges of the City’s boundary…recently it even tried to charge rural folks a not insignificant ‘sewer equivalency charge’ because a not insignificant number of city-slickers complained that it ‘wasn’t fair’ that folks on septic/well didn’t pay they’re share of city sewage and water treatment costs. Eventually the City enacted a ‘drainage/culvert maintenance fee’…I anticipate the Grade-Alls to be out in force keeping our dry culverts….dry.

Specious bike route implementation and a crappy LRT that pukes axels at a regular rate is as good as it gets in my town…

Just ask them for their bank account info so you can send them the bill for pumping or replacement.

I suppose fairness is in the eye of the . . . commode - er?

 

[mariomike]

Strange you should say that. I'm in a rural subdivision. I realize it's hard to directly compare apples to apples, but according to the City of Toronto's property tax calculator, for equal assessed value, if my house was in Toronto my taxes would be about $600 less. I'm on well and septic, have a volunteer fire department and my municipality doesn't have a transit service.

Not like the old days. Until 1993 they picked our garbage at the side door. Now you have to wheel it down to the end of the driveway.

no concept of the “slow bike” culture in Europe.

I think the bike culture is a lot more sensible in places like the Netherlands.

We seldom saw adults on bikes. When we did, the bikes were always old slow ones.

I see them racing through the park. I think the police issue them speeding tickets, but no demerit points.

 

[DeweyDecimal]

Those numbers for Canada are depressing but they make me appreciate the fact that I live in a very bike friendly city even more.

Good bike infrastructures are crucial to make cities more liveable.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1534514126512345089

 

[mariomike]

Those numbers for Canada are depressing but they make me appreciate the fact that I live in a very bike friendly city even more.

More "bike friendly" than some neighbourhoods.

WARNING: Bad language.

 

[Furniture]

I consider myself a dedicated cyclist. I live in an area where I can get where I need to most of the time in 15 minutes on a bicycle. I have cycled toured extensively in Canada, the US and Europe (Sweden, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland, etc.).

I like riding my bike. I like the exercise. I like that it costs me almost nothing to travel around. I like that I do my part to reduce my impact on the environment.

I find RangerRay's use of the term "bike nazi" highly inappropriate and offensive. That is simply uncalled for and wrong.

While I agree that the language was unnecessarily offensive, I also find it amusing that rather than counter the actual argument you just attacked the choice of words.

Ottawa keeps expanding it's bike lanes, which creates more traffic problems/congestion, so that the mostly mostly upper-middle class office drones can get to work in spandex faster. Nothing says "I'm saving the environment" quite like making cars sit idling at traffic lights.